Later this week, Fractal Vote is set to go live—a feature that demonstrates yet another advanced capability achieved through Bitcoin scripts. As Fractal Bitcoin continues to evolve, more use cases will emerge, unlocking a broader range of possibilities.
During a recent Space, I was asked for a simple explanation of details about Fractal Vote. While our previous article, Fractal Voting: Unlock New Possibilities with On-Chain Governance on Bitcoin, explored its technical implementation in depth, this post aims to break down its features for non-technical users, showcasing what makes Fractal Vote unique.
Key Features
- Flexible Lock/Unlock with Arbitrary Time Length
- Fully On-Chain Contract-Based Custody
- Secure Isolation of Individual User Stakes
Flexible Lock/Unlock with Arbitrary Time Length
Traditional Bitcoin timelock enables assets to be locked until a specific block height or timestamp, restricting access until the designated time has passed.
Fractal Vote enhances this by locking assets in independent Taproot script addresses. Users have the flexibility to unlock their assets at any chosen time. This unlock behavior can also incorporate additional controls, such as introducing a cooling period or requiring special signatures for unlocking.
This flexibility ensures that users are not constrained by time-based restrictions while still maintaining security.
Fully On-Chain Contract-Based Custody
Before the implementation of Fractal Vote, it wasn’t possible to entrust assets to a specific contract using Bitcoin scripts. By enabling contract-based asset custody, Fractal Vote offers significant benefits:
- The ownership of funds is securely transferred between the user and the contract throughout the custody period.
- There is no reliance on third parties, eliminating the need for trust in intermediaries.
This approach fundamentally aligns with Bitcoin’s ethos of decentralization and trustless operations.
Secure Isolation of Individual User-Locked Assets
In Fractal Vote, each user’s assets are locked into separate UTXOs, ensuring physical isolation at the blockchain level. If one user’s locked assets encounter risks, this isolation prevents any impact on others.
This feature contrasts sharply with Ethereum’s contract-based models, where all user funds are pooled into a single contract. In Ethereum:
- A contract vulnerability can jeopardize all user assets.
- Transactions with the contract occur sequentially, meaning execution order can influence outcomes, creating performance bottlenecks.
By leveraging UTXO-based isolation, Fractal Vote eliminates these risks. Moreover, the UTXO model naturally lends itself to parallel processing, making it easier to improve system performance in the long run.
References
- Timelock
- Fractal Voting: Unlock New Possibilities with On-Chain Governance on Bitcoin
- https://vote.fractalbitcoin.io/
Lorenzo
November 28, 2024
E-2411B (Lorenzo’s Library)
Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0